Rise High Awards 2019 : 120+ Nominations from 300,000+ apartment units.
Yes. That’s the extent of the overwhelming nominations received this year for Rise High Awards 2019. This award show has always been for the communities and by the communities. The inspiring nominations received this year are what made the fourth installment of the award show memorable and a learning experience for each one of us, the ADDAites and the audience.
The event scheduled on November 9, 2019 at Royal Orchid – Regenta, Bengaluru was opened by San Banerjee, Founder and CEO of ADDA introducing the 200 strong audience to ADDA’s vision – the possibilities of a connected community. Rise High Awards 2019 was a visual testimonial of the vision turning to reality.
Ex- Army (Col.) Sandeep Kumar Sharma, General Manager, Prestige Group and Chief Guest set the tone of the event in his inaugural speech. He captured the essence of the event beautifully in his words,“What we are talking about today is not a business – it is the need of the hour; the need is sustainable development.” He stressed on ADDA’s potential and ability to be a facilitator in communities to promote and practice sustainability.
The event saw winners and runners-up from multiple states across nine categories. The following is the category wise list of the champions :
Waste Management :
Winner : Sobha Dahlia, Bengaluru. The community records 100% compliance with their long waste segregation at source programme. Waste is segregated into four sections – wet, dry, reject and e-waste. Wet waste is entirely processed in-situ to turn into compost for internal use as well as sold outside. The dry, reject and e-waste are given to registered and validated vendors for recycling and eco-friendly processing.
Runner Up : Kochar Panchsheel, Chennai. This community taught us how our waste can be the government’s resource. They religiously send their plastic waste to the local government who use it to build roads.
Water Management :
Winner : Ashok Tower, Mumbai. This elite society not only harvests rainwater but constantly works on reusing water, budgeting water usage and makes it a point to inculcate the habit of reducing water consumption in their community.
Runner Up : Raheja Eternity, Mumbai. With three water saving projects – Rainwater Harvesting, STP and water reuse projects, this Mumbai community is again spearheading the fight against the water crisis.
Green Initiatives :
Winner : Sobha Forestview, Bengaluru. An inspiring community, the residents of Forestview are the guardians of Turahalli forest, constantly working towards the protection and conservation of the forest cover.
Runner Up : Mallika Malancha, Kolkata. Turning a concrete community into a three level dense greenery comprising medicinal herbs, fruit bearing trees, flowering plants is no mean feat.
Initiatives Outside The Gate :
Winner : Sobha Quartz, Bengaluru. Empathy is the spirit of the Quartzians. From cleaning Iblur Lake and taking responsibility to conserve it, participating in the development of orphaned and troubled children at Santosh Charitable Trust and bringing joy to the lives of the less fortunate in Swanthana Care and Asha Bhavan is what sets this humane community apart.
Runner Up : Deccan Palms Villa, Bengaluru. Working for the voiceless requires grit, courage and determination. Deccan Palms Villa has shown that by taking care of the medical and nutritional needs of the stray dogs in their layout.
Renewable Energy :
Winner : Giridhari Executive Park, Hyderabad. With one of the largest residential solar power set up, this community has covered milestones to become a green community and has become a torch bearer for communities looking to transition to Solar Power.
Runner Up : ARK Serene County, Bengaluru. The community enlightened us on how effective solar power can be when executed diligently and with the right guidance from an authentic, knowledgeable vendor.
Domestic Staff Welfare :
Winner : South City Residency, Kolkata. Medical camps, donation drives, literacy programmes are some of the highlights of the community to take care of the physical, mental and intellectual well being of their domestic staff.
Runner Up : Deccan Palms Villa, Bengaluru. Once again this gritty community has shown the ability to care for the underrated – little activities of donation drives and a mandatory healthcare kit available within the premises for use by the domestic staff anytime shows the heart of gold this community possesses.
Association – Builder Collaboration :
Winner : Perfect Pavillion and Perfect Builders, Chennai. When associations and builders unite to solve a problem, sustainability is a given. The builder and residents got together to implement water metering at the initial stage to ensure water sustainability right from the start.
Best Community Manager :
Winner : Concorde Napa Valley, Bengaluru.
Runner Up : TATA New Haven & Riva, Bengaluru.
Special Initiatives :
Rise High Awards 2019 turned out to be more special for the following three nominations received. Communities who have united and gone beyond the normal to achieve amazing results.
Nominee 1 : Project Red Dot, Versova, Mumbai. Driving an entire region to follow eco friendly disposal of used sanitary napkins is not a small achievement, considering the massive taboo we still have around menstruation.
Nominee 2 : Sustainable City, UAE. Imagine an entire animal sanctuary of rescued animals within the community premises – yes, that’s exactly what Sustainable City did.
Nominee 3 : K Raheja Corp., Mumbai with Mindspace Campus, Hyderabad. There cannot be anything more ideal than a builder taking the initiative to prioritise sustainability in their projects.
Guest Speaker, Shailaja Rangarajan, Founder of Rimagined focused on the importance of continuity in sustainability by apartment communities. She drove home the point about how apartment communities hold potential to take on leadership roles to better their locality at large.
Advocate E. Suhail Ahmed and CA Vinay Thyagaraj of RERA Consultants LLP heading the panel on RERA advised the audience on the legal and financial implications of RERA on their properties. They explained each and every tenet of the law in the most lucid terms. The audience benefitted from knowing how to utilise this home-owner and home-buyer friendly law to their advantage.
The Solar Panel titled “Solar Rooftop Projects For Residential And Apartment Complexes : Perspective From The Solar Industry” saw industry leaders Harsha Kuntur (Founder of EcoSoch Solar), Karthikeyan V (Head – Business Development (Rooftop), Tata Power Solar), Dr. Ishwar Hegde (Managing Director, Sunfan Energy), Alan Babu (Founder, SmartSolar) and Rajendra Kulkarni (Founder, Smart Solar Solutionz) conducted an informative panel on the costs of setting rooftop solar plants in apartment complexes, the government subsidies available, the maintenance procedure and cost, the average time for ROI and discussions about models of parts available.
Product Awareness sessions from Smarter Homes, WeGot Utility Solutions, Greenvironment India and Exprs acquainted the crowd about sustainable and hassle free services available in the market to create a harmonious ecosystem in the community.
That is not all!
This year marks 10 years of ADDA in the industry. The journey this company undertook since 2019 would have been incomplete without the support of communities and individuals who have helped ADDA grow and evolve. We took the opportunity to felicitate these communities and individuals without whom this journey wouldn’t have been an exciting learning curve.
Click here to see the Rise High moments of November 9!
We are grateful to our Sponsors, WeGot Utility Solutions, FoodyBuddy, Smarter Homes, EcoSoch, OnsiteGo, Exprs, Greenvironment and Portea as well as our Partners, Whitefield Rising, The Indian Wire, Track2Realty, Townscript and RERA Consultants LLP for supporting Rise High Awards 2019 and participating in boosting communities to continue the bold steps they take everyday towards the goal of a green, sustainable, healthy future.
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